Fabrics formed from polyester or nylon fibers have many useful properties including low cost, manufacturability, relatively light weight, dyeability, and wearability, to name but a few. Due to these useful properties, such fabrics have found wide spread use in garment applications. In particular, nylon and polyester fabrics are often used in the manufacture of outer protective garments such as jackets, pants, hats, gloves, and the like.
In such applications, it is also desirable for the fabric to include liquid barrier properties to help prevent liquids, such as water, from penetrating through the garment and contacting the skin of the wearer. Generally, liquid barrier properties can be imparted to a fabric by coating it with a urethane coating or water-repellant composition, such as a fluorochemical, which helps prevent water from penetrating into the fabric.
In some cases, it may also be desirable for the fabric to have fire resistant properties. Various fire retardant compositions and approaches have developed that can be applied to fabrics to help improve the fire resistance of the fabric to which it is applied. Generally, these compositions and approaches involve the chemical or physical application of a protective coating on the surface of the fabric. These fire retardant compositions are typically applied to the fabric in at a relatively high concentration in order to obtain the desired fire retardant properties in the fabric. Many such fire retardant compositions do not work adequately with respect to polyester and nylon fibers. Many common fire retardant compositions use a self-extinguishing process after ignition to thereby prevent further ignition of the fabric and the fibers themselves. However, polyester and nylons fibers generally melt before actual ignition of the fibers occurs. As a result, the fibers may melt prior to ignition of the flame retardant compositions. This can result in melted material from the fibers contacting the skin of the wearer, which in turn can result in burning the wearer's skin.
In some cases, coating the fabric with a flame retardant composition can reduce the otherwise desirable properties of the fabric, for example, the wearability, weight, and/or flexibility of the fabric. This loss of desirable properties may be particularly amplified in cases where a fabric is treated with both a fire retardant composition and a water repellant composition. Additionally, the application of both a fire retardant composition and a water repellant composition may result in loss or a decrease in the breathability of the fabric. Breathability in barrier fabrics may be desirable because it allows moisture vapor to egress out of the garment while preventing liquids from ingressing into the fabric.